Ships and submarines may be equipped with torpedo tubes and associated systems for launching torpedoes. Non-weapon devices, which may include sonars or various sensors, for example, may also be launched though torpedo tubes. Generally, these sensor devices are torpedo-shaped so that they will fit through a torpedo tube and so that they can be stored on the same supports as torpedoes.
The use of single-purpose torpedo-shaped devices carrying sensors is known, and a plurality of such devices may be carried on a ship or boat, each for a particular purpose. Depending on the need at hand, a particular one of the torpedo-shaped devices is selected and discharged from a torpedo tube. Each of these devices, however, is substantially the same size as a torpedo and thus each device reduces the number of torpedoes that can be carried by one. This is a particular problem on submarines where storage space is limited.
To reduce the cost of developing future underwater vehicles for carrying out various missions, the use of modular vehicles has been considered. As illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13, these vehicles may include three primary sections: a nose section 200, a tail section 210 and a payload section 220 or 234 mounted between the nose and tail sections. Each payload section 220, 234 is a self-contained module with all the sensors and processing circuitry 230, 230′ necessary to perform a single mission. To use a given payload, a nose section and tail section are attached to a payload section and the assembled system is tested to ensure that it is watertight. To change payloads, the nose and tail sections must be removed and attached to a new payload, again with the need for testing to ensure proper assembly and that the system is watertight.
The use of such modular payloads reduces the room taken up by payloads to some extent, but the payloads are still large enough to require multiple persons and/or lifting equipment to manipulate. Thus, where prior, non-modular, sensing devices were each approximately as large as a torpedo, the above modular sensing devices take up half to three quarters as much space as a torpedo. It is desirable to provide an underwater vehicle for carrying payloads, suitable for discharge via torpedo tube or in a similar manner, which is usable with compact, modular payloads.